In recent years, there has been an increasing number of users who brows documents such as information materials and books using apparatuses such as an electronic book provided with a display section. The above apparatus (hereinafter called “information browsing apparatus”) is provided with a touch panel on a display section which enables input operation of characters and so forth by handwriting.
As to the input operation using the above touch panel, for example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication NO. 2009-199621), discloses an electronic apparatus provided with a display section and a display device having a single point detection type device to detect a pointed position on the display section in a predetermined detection interval provided with a representing position determination device to determine a representing position representing a plurality of pointed positions detected within a unit time for the every unit time which is longer than a detection interval, a position identicalness judging device to judge whether or not the same pointed positions are detected continuously, based on whether or not the representing positions change within a predetermined range in which the pointed positions are deemed to be the same pointed positions, and an input range variable control device to vary an extent of the predetermined range in which the position identicalness judging device judges that the same position is continuously detected and to control identifying and displaying the input range portion thereof in the display section.
Also, in Patent Document 2 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication NO. 2008-084137), there is disclosed a portable electronic apparatus including: an input device to receive input of handwritten data, integrally configured on a display screen to display information, a data converting device to convert a predetermined bunch of handwritten data inputted via the input device into a piece of image data, a image contraction device to create a reduced-size image by contracting the image data with a fixed aspect ratio so that a width corresponding to line pitch of the image data becomes not more than a line pitch of a predetermined display area on a display screen, a display device to array the reduced-size image data sequentially in the predetermined display area and display, a display correction device to selectively correct a length of an entire line of the reduced-size image data sequentially arrayed when the reduced-size image data is arrayed sequentially and displayed, and a control device to control operation of the display correction device, wherein the control device is provided with a first threshold exceeding a maximum display length of a line displayable on the display device, and in case the entire length of one line of the contracted image data to be array sequentially exceeds the maximum display length and does not exceeds the first threshold, the display correction device conducts contraction correction so that the entire length of one line falls within the maximum display length.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication NO. 2009-199621
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication NO. 2008-084137
As configurations to display documents on the information browsing apparatuses, there are a plurality of configurations, for example, a configuration to display one page and a configuration to display a plurality of pages (for example, two-page spread), where a user can change the display configuration in accordance with conditions of use. When this occurs, in case hand writing is carried out while displaying a document in the first display configuration then the first display configuration is changed to the second display configuration to display the document, forms of handwritten characters and figures are deformed or divided and meanings of handwritten information may become unable to be recognized.
For example, in a state that the display screen is configured with a plurality of regions in which images (for example, images of each page) of documents are displayed in respective regions, if handwriting is carried out in a way to straddle the plurality of the regions, thereafter the display configuration is changed (for example, if images of respective pages are displayed individually), only a portion of the handwritten information written in the object region for displaying is displayed and other portions written in other regions are not displayed. Therefore there is a problem that the meaning of the handwriting information cannot be recognized.
The present invention has one aspect to resolve the aforementioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information browsing apparatus and a display control method of the information browsing apparatus which enable appropriate display of information handwritten in a plurality of regions so that meaning of the handwritten information can be recognized.